We do this in Groups
by EvitaRose
Summary: Aladdin's gang gets together with Jasmine's guard, and they decide to share protection.


Mary Russell

This is a cross between The Fugitive and Aladdin

We Do This in Groups

Aladdin grabbed the bread and hurried away with it into the crowd. "I sometimes dress as a commoner to escape the pressures of palace life." He had said that to Jasmine so long ago. He just wanted to steal something. He tucked the bread into his coat and took out a list as if he had just bought the bread as if he had other things to shop for in the marketplace. It was a theft and a Sting, and no one questioned him

Because Jasmine had his back. She sneaked a five Lira note to the baker. Which way did Aladdin go? He had just disappeared into the crowd. She signaled to her lookouts. "Where did he go?" she signaled. One of them gestured to his sandal. The shoe store, she thought. She made a beeline for the shoe store. He was fast. To his credit he took out his wallet and bought the softest leather shoes she had ever seen. A thief has a quiet soul, she thought. How could she have been so stupid? How could she have thought that he would leave this life behind?

He looked up. His friend whispered, "The Princess is following you, and that man is looking for a one armed man, the one who killed his wife." Aladdin returned, "Let's lose the Princess. You take my brown robe and go that way, into the crowd. I'll take your jacket, and Humid, give me the loaf." They switched jackets and parted ways, Humid leaving the shoe stand and Aladdin disappearing into the shoe stand and taking the back way out. A couple of street children looked hungry at his loaf. He broke it in half and gave them the other half. He ate some to show that it isn't poisoned. They ate hungrily. "How's the food at the Palace, Aladdin?" asked a tall woman from another doorway. "You still have many friends on the street. I am one of them," she said. "The food is great. I could get fat, I mean really fat. I try to steal her some lower class food, but she pays off my friends and tries to turn them straight. Which you're not supposed to do. We're not straight. We're friends. I mean, she doesn't understand lower class food. She won't eat just a loaf of bread from the market place. She'll put some butter and honey on that, and then she'll pay for it. She won't just eat a melon stolen fresh from the marketplace."

"Aladdin, do you love her?"

"Oh, I love her, but I'm a thief. I had to go back to the Marketplace, one more time.

"Aladdin, I have heard some gossip in the marketplace. The Princess is under attack. The armies of the assassin are at the front gate. They mean to kill the Sultan and take the Princess for chattel. The Princess has a mighty army, an army of women ten thousand strong. In a bustling metropolis the size of Cairo, one would expect no less. Look, I have a humus wrap for you. My father always paid you off so that you'd stay out of his store. He died last year. Now I expect you to stay away from my store, young Prince."

"What kind of troop configurations have you got on this assassin? What's his name? The Shat?"

"Aladdin, be quiet. He has fifty men at every entrance to the city, but he doesn't want our people. It's the Sultan he wants. They are underground. The Sultan's men are back by the Palace at the center of town. They are outnumbered. The Princess' women are holding back the assassin at every gate, but we don't know the number of the Assassin's men. They are the enemies of the Sultan. Look out! The gates have been breeched. The Assassin is sneaking in underground. Run, Aladdin. You must get back to the Palace before the Princess falls."

"I have always stayed out of Rick's. Thanks for the bribe. I had better get back to the palace. I'm worried about Jasmine."

"You're welcome, Aladdin. You'd best hurry. Shalom."

Aladdin whistles, and his magic carpet and monkey, Abboo appear as if by magic. He jumps aboard and flies over the busy marketplace. Jasmine's women see him flying aboard his magic carpet, and they signal to the Princess. Aladdin lands in the Princess' apartments. The guards seem different.

"Aladdin," said Jasmine looking seductive. She wore red jewels in her hair and red silk palazzo pants and red halter top. "Jasmine? Is that you?" He wore fine brown thief's vest over fine Arabic pants. The embroidery was intelligent, and the brown jewels were real. He wore a strand of fine golden pearls at his neck, and his shoes were of the softest brown leather. He could have blended into a wall. He could have been anyone except for his soft jewels.

But it wasn't Jasmine. She had been replaced by the Assassin, but he didn't let on that he knew she had been replaced. He looked in the mirror in her apartments, and he knew that they had overlooked one detail: Jasmine's mirror double. In a second he had gone see through and stepped into the mirror. "Aladdin, what are you doing with my mirror?" He didn't let on. "Be back in a second," he replied.

He found himself in a room just like the Princess'. "Aladdin, is that you?" asked the lookalike Jasmine. "I know you because you slip me a fifty every time I see you. The guards came and replaced Jasmine. I think she's in the dungeon. The new Sultan looks just like the old one, except he plans to raise taxes and build the MIT. Look, there has been a rupture in time. Too many people are coming here from all time, some from the past, and some from the future. We are struggling to keep the calendar steady and the clocks in a gang so that we all have a scheduled no time. There are pockets of no time more than twenty four hours long, and we are low on snacks. People come from other times and they see our prosperity. Some kill and take their places. Others gang up and share. Still others put on a hat and an identity and leave the past and the future behind. What will you do, Aladdin?"

"Rescue the princess, get myself some digs where we can be really lower class, take her there and, seeing you in red, Jasmine, I want a son. Ruling Acaba isn't my bag, baby. It's yours." Said Aladdin. "Let's go to the dungeon and get Jasmine. Here's a map," she said as they descended down the steps. Aladdin rubbed an old lamp, and out popped a genie. It shimmered in the darkness. "What do you wish for," asked the genie. "Find Jasmine, My Jasmine." Said Aladdin. "Left, right," said the genie. "This way," said Jasmine. He followed her down a hallway. "Here is the pantry. You hungry? I heard you were stealing in the marketplace, just like old times."

"You didn't know I was a thief, did you?"

"Look at your soft, suede shoes. Look, you're sneaking. You don't make a sound," she whispered. They came to the first stall. An old man sat looking like Picasso's Blue Period. They freed him. They freed every man woman and child in the dungeon, but Jasmine was nowhere to be found. "Well, I'm glad, said Mirror Jasmine. "She must be with her Women. Otherwise, she's dead." Aladdin whistled, and the magic carpet appeared. Get on board, Jasmine of the Mirror. He took her hand and turned her see-through and went up through the ceiling. Soon they were in the court room. There sat the Sultan, two of them, the Sultan and the Sultana. "Oh there you are, you pretty boy. The Princess has been following you. Her women are all over the city. They are keeping peace. We have had a Wrinkle in time. The past was left to go its own way, and it came back to bite us. This is the Sultana, my twin sister. She has just been barfed up by time, not from a holocaust, but by a fifty year's no time. She is about fifty years old. So am I. She came on a ship, on a space ship from across the galaxy, and we have decided to share the power. She has a daughter, Jasmine, but she has no son in law Aladdin. Two Jasmines came out on to the throne room floor. They wore light blue with great blue diamonds in their hair. One said, "So you met him in the marketplace, did you? Show me this diamond in the rough, this new husband of yours." "We can have separate husbands. The Sultan was thinking of building a wedding pavilion near the palace. We are to have our own rooms." "Jasmine, it's you!" Said Aladdin. The two embraced. "Who is this?" she saw Jasmine in red. "She's your clone. She works in your mirror." Said Aladdin. "Just call me Jazz," said Jasmine the Red. "Wait until you see the guard. They're all Jasmines." The guard files in, thirty women, hair in ponytails, chests in silver plate metal, naked stomached, and wearing Arabic pants, carrying silver tipped spears each with a silver scimitar at her right side. They looked hard at Aladdin. "Our Prince," they said. They thought to themselves. "He would blend into a wall in that. Why brown? He is for the poor in that. He doesn't have any brothers, does he? He is good looking," she thought to themselves in a hard, soldier like way. "Wait until you meet my gang. We are about thirty. We all come from all walks of life. Jasmine, I wanted you to meet my friends. We had such a small wedding. Let me give the whistle. They'll soon be at the front gate. "Aladdin went with one of Jasmine's guard out to the front gate. He whistles a very distinctive whistle, kind of like a flute call. All around the town there was silence for a second. Then the white noise resumed. "Let me introduce you," said Aladdin. "Here's my gang: Akmed, the bricklayer: "You didn't see me here, Princess." Hawka, the gentleman: "I thought you were in trouble. I came to the sound of the whistle." Aslan Zeredine: "Don't tell my wife I am a thief. She already knows. Thirty men stood in the doorway, blending in to the earth itself. "Men," said Aladdin, "Meet my wife, Jasmine. These men will never steal from you." Jasmine said, "Honor among thieves," said Jasmine. "Well, come in hand have some baklava and some sweet meats and olives. We'll scare up some mutton gyros and have them for snacks. Tell the chef, his finest spices."

She stood in the doorway munching baklava, a many layered Middle Eastern honey treat. "So this is your gang, Aladdin." Said Jasmine. Then a star walked through, Harrison Ford. "I didn't kill my wife," he said. "But Aladdin is a good guy. I work down at the healers. I was once a fugitive from the law, but I proved myself innocent and got my life back. I'm from the future. I have brought fancy technology from the future to the healers hut. We're doing good business. Aladdin and I go way back. I knew him before he was a Prince and before he married you, Jasmine. We have Arabic relatives in common."

"So what are we going to steal?" asked a small man in the back. "The heart of the Princess. We're just socializing today," said Aladdin. So they kicked back and ate baklava and humus wraps with gyros. "Harrison, there's someone working at the hospital who looks just like you. He is your double. He is moving up through your clone line. He may try to pay you off. We are a double, Snoz and I. We have divided our residence into two houses, at least I am an uncle and I have a room of my own." Said Larry. "I traveled here from nearby in my house which is a ship. I have donned a disguise, and I am my own person."

Aladdin cleared his throat. "Attention. These are my friends, and when the real assassin comes we shall steal him into his underpants and take his sword.

"Attention, Aladdin, these are my inner circle of women. They are not wearing their uniforms, but they would like to socialize with you." "We are the protectors of Acaba. We are known as the Princess' guards. We will be guarding you and Aboo. We are a force of fifty thousand. Acaba has a population of about a million, but we have been getting an influx of time travelers about a tenth of that. Some kill and stay. Others kill and move on. Still others bring their own ships and vie for space along the outskirts of the city. The wave is coming, and Acaba knows it. Will we stand for another no time? Are we going Blue? The palace will float. It is also programmed. We are controlling the oasis at the center of town. The fountains flow year round." "Still, you look worried, Princess. I think we should go for another no time here in Acaba, another fifty years without stint. If our no timers did it once, they can do it again. Here we are, once upon a night, upon a dark night in Acaba, the scarf of the princess is stolen. It is a magic scarf given to her on her birthday from the Prince of Thieves, Aladdin. It is a magic scarf. It protects her from harm. It is her army, and it is his gang. One in three people in Acaba belong to the Gang of the Chapot, the gang of the hat. Be careful when you wear a hat in Acaba, for it may guide you down a dark street where a dark man waits with a dark purpose. This is no ordinary hat. It once changed the course of a man's life.

One of the Princess' guards showed a green silk scarf. This is the scarf of the princess. Whoever wears it IS the princess. No one has ever worn it long. Aladdin said, "Is the Princess dead?" "No, she is alive. Magically, whoever wears the green scarf has the best interest of Acaba at heart." "Who sleeps with me?" asks Aladdin. "Whomever you like. I think you had a friendship kindling with Jazz the Mirror walker. She will be the first to wear the green scarf. "And can I take her to my place in the Village?"

"She will go like the wife of Genghis Kahn, carrying gifts on her back, and you shall not sit until the rug has been spread and dinner is on the stove." Said Miranda. "How many of us can go?" "We shall share our army, two at every entrance. A hundred down below. I am a general, Aladdin. I will be protecting you tonight. My name is Linda. Show us your place. Mirror woman, come and keep Aladdin company." She put on a crown and wove the green and golden scarf through the tines. It fell down one shoulder silk and shiny. Jasmine smiled. He took her hand and paraded through the streets, across a rooftop, and into a cave with a beautiful view of the Palace of Acaba. "Stand, Aladdin." Said Linda as she put down a many colored rug. They moved on colorful futons, set cooking fires to work with mutton stew. Finally they put a down comforter in white and gold over in a corner, which they had brightened up with yellow lamps and candles. They put up chairs and pillows for every member of the gang and guard, the inner circle anyway, and they ate the mutton stew and told old Aladdin stories and tales of bravery of the guard. "Akmed, the bricklayer once stole an earring from an actress. It was solid gold, an emerald star. She never knew she was missing it. That night she was taken for espionage from Jakarta, without the earring. She was an evil actress and an enemy of the state. Aladdin said, "Once there was a holy man who came by sea to loot and pillage Acaba. No one would go near him, but Aladdin stole his helmet, and his golden curls came tumbling down. Hawka, here stole his sword, and Hakim stole his boots. He was in his underpants by the time he got to the palace, and the Princess let him go because he had mud on his butt." An orgy broke out between three couples of Aladdin's thieves and Jasmine's inner circle. People slept on down comforters and combed cotton pillows. People sang in small circles and drank lower class beer and ate Baklava and mutton stew. Aladdin himself and the Mirror Jasmine kissed blissfully on the couch. She said she was frightened of the criminals in the Bastille, but he comforted her saying, "Things are going to change. You can't get hanged for stealing bread anymore. People will have to figure out what a misdemeanor is. We will have to change the laws." Aladdin was friend to the poor. It was the first day of Aladdin's true marriage, and it was a happy one.


End file.
